He was a man possessed of a messianic conviction that he and he alone could bring peace and democracy to his bloodstained nation. And for a long time after Jose Napoleon Duarte became President of El Salvador in 1984 Washington shared his belief that he could make a difference. Six years later, however, El Salvador remains as desperate as ever. The bitter civil war lurches on, with the country's 5 million people still hostage to the brutal campaigns of the far-right death squads and the left-wing guerrillas. Duarte's economic and social reforms are mostly in ruins, and his pledges to punish human-rights abuses and corruption remain unfulfilled. Last week, at the age of 64, Duarte died in his home in San Salvador, his body ravaged by cancer, his spirit diminished by the disappointment of unrealized dreams.
The promise that was Duarte flickered most brightly in 1984, the year he rode to the presidency on a wave of popular enthusiasm. Pledging an end to the civil war and the beginning of an era of stability, Duarte became El Salvador's first freely elected civilian President in half a century. It was a particularly satisfying victory, since Duarte had been robbed of the presidency in 1972, when Salvadoran soldiers halted the vote count and beat the candidate severely. Duarte fled into exile in Venezuela, not venturing home until seven years later, when a coup paved the way for his participation in a military-civilian junta. When the presidential nod finally came, he proclaimed, "This moment is just the beginning of a much longer road."
Little did he suspect just how long -- or rugged -- that road would be. For most of his early life, there had been ample good luck. His father, a tailor, struck it rich in 1944 by winning the national lottery. That, and a partial scholarship, enabled Duarte to attend the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a degree in civil engineering. When he returned home, Duarte married the daughter of his father's best friend and joined his father-in-law's lucrative construction firm as a partner. In 1960 Duarte helped found the Christian Democratic Party, and four years later he began the first of three consecutive terms as mayor of San Salvador.
The initial months of his presidency were a heady time, as Duarte set his agenda in motion. He created a commission to investigate death-squad killings, shuffled the command of the security forces and toured the richer capitals of the West in search of foreign aid. He found his most receptive audience in Washington, where a charmed Congress soon approved more than $200 million in military and economic assistance. Over the next five years, U.S. spending would surpass $3 billion; Washington's faith in Duarte endured long after his support at home had eroded.